As one conventional example of various vehicle lighting units to be mounted in a vehicle body, those including an elongated light guide which is to be illuminated are known. When a bent light guide such as those in the form of a letter U shape or the like is illuminated in this type of vehicle lighting unit, if a light source such as a light emitting diode (LED) is disposed only at one of ends of the elongated light guide, the light entering the light guide may be attenuated as it is guided therethrough. As a result, the uniformity of the light emission state in the lengthwise direction of the light guide may deteriorate. To cope with this problem, in general, both the ends of the light guide are configured to face respective light sources as shown in FIG. 1. (See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-243539).
However, this type of vehicle lighting unit should include light sources at two locations separated away from each other. This means that two separate substrates for mounting the respective light sources are required, resulting in increasing the number of parts compared with the case where only one light source is provided.
In addition, since the light sources are disposed to face the respective ends of the elongated light guide, they must be concealed by some means (concealing members) such as extensions so that the light sources at two separate locations cannot be directly observed in front of them. This also causes an increased number of parts for the concealing members. This may also inhibit the provision of the vehicle lighting unit in a desired location in a vehicle body. Specifically, the end of the light guide cannot be located at the end of a lighting chamber due to the provision of the light source at the end of the light guide, meaning that the end of the lighting unit cannot be illuminated.